Coker: TV a ‘Big Issue’ for Strikeforce-Bellator Co-Promotion

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney wants to pit his lightweight champion
against Strikeforce’s. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is interested,
but he’s not sure it can be done.

A matchup between Bellator titleholder Eddie
Alvarez, ranked sixth in the world, and Strikeforce champ
Gilbert
Melendez, ranked second, could be one of the biggest 155-pound
bouts ever outside of the UFC.

In an interview Wednesday on the
Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show, Coker said Rebney
called Strikeforce four or five months ago about making the fight,
but Melendez was recovering from a broken hand suffered during his
April bout against Shinya
Aoki.

“Obviously our record shows that we will co-promote and we will let
fighters go and exchange fighters with other leagues,” Coker said
he told Rebney. “We’ve done it with M-1 with Fedor. We’ve done it
with Dream. So I think our record speaks for itself on that
front.”

However, Coker said one issue with co-promotion would be the timing
of an Alvarez-Melendez matchup.

“We’re doing 16, 18, maybe 20 [events] in a calendar year,” Coker
said. “Timing is an issue because we need our athletes to be busy
in Strikeforce. But with saying that, then the other part is the
business relationship, is what type of business relationship are we
going to have with Bjorn and can we put it together and make it
work for everybody. Because as you know, it’s not always an easy
thing when you co-promote. Sometimes there can be things on both
sides that show up as a deal breaker. It took me a long time to get
the Dream deal done with Aoki. Probably took me about a year. So
will [Alvarez-Melendez] happen? We’ll see. Would I like it to
happen? Sure. But all the stars have to fall into place.”

Another hurdle -- a major one -- both Bellator and Strikeforce
would have to clear is their television deals.

“They have a deal with Fox and NBC late night, and Showtime is our
partner. So where does the fight air?” Coker said. “There’s your
first question, and I think that’s going to be a big hurdle. Things
like that -- there are probably a dozen things on the checklist,
but when you start thinking where’s this thing going to air, I can
tell you right now I think it’s going to be a big issue.”

In the meantime, Alvarez will fight Roger
Huerta at
Bellator 33 on Oct. 21. Melendez could be competing next on New
Year’s Eve in Japan -- an opportunity that would result from
Strikeforce’s relationship with Dream.

“It’s a solid relationship,” Coker said of his dealings with the
Japanese promotion. “I think we have a clear understanding. I think
we understand how each other’s companies work now and I understand
the Japanese fight business. When we brought Aoki over, we had
promised to bring them a top lightweight back to Dream. We said we
would do that, so there is a possibility that Gilbert might fight
on New Year’s Eve. It’s not 100 percent, but we’ll see how things
go and then after that you’ll see [Tatsuya] Kawajiri and other
fighters start coming back this way.”